An Overdue Step To Halt Epidemic Of Veteran Suicides

Veterans suicide bill: Congress should have acted long ago on this horrifying epidemic

The U.S. Senate took a first step this week toward stemming the horrifying epidemic of suicide by armed services veterans. It's long overdue and desperately needed.

On Tuesday, the Senate unanimously passed the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who had made it his "first priority." He was moved by the suicide of a decorated Marine veteran and father of five he had known. The bill now goes to President Obama to sign.

Between 18 and 22 veterans committed suicide every day from 1999 to 2010, according to a Department of Veterans Affairs study. Congress should have acted long before now to provide decent mental health care for veterans.

Among other things, the bill requires an annual third-party evaluation of mental health care at Veterans Administration facilities and repays up to $30,000 per year of college loans of psychiatrists who commit to at least two years of VA service.

The act is named for a 28-year-old Marine veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder who volunteered his time to help other vets but, after receiving inadequate care at his local VA hospital, committed suicide in 2011.

Legislation pushed by U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., to strengthen suicide prevention programs for veterans won Senate approval Tuesday and is expected to become the first veterans' bill of 2015 to be signed by President Barack Obama.

The measure — dubbed the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention...

(LISA CHEDEKEL)

Sen. Blumenthal, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, called the act "only a down payment" on improving mental health care for veterans. It had better be.

Nearly a decade ago, two reporters at The Courant began reporting an alarming increase in suicides among combat troops and lapses in their screening and treatment. The military was sending mentally unfit soldiers into war, with tragic results, the writers found.

The Clay Hunt measure is a start in caring for those who survive combat and service only to face life-threatening struggles as civilians.